Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Really? This guy is smart? (Part 4)

I know it seems like we just touched on this subject a few days ago (see January 19 post, and previous entries mentioned there) but I can't get over the increasing evidence that this president just isn't very bright.

Last year he managed to anger a large chunk of the Nevada electorate when he told a bunch of businesses that had taken federal bailout money that "You can't go take that trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on taxpayers' dime." The engine of the Nevada economy is tourism, and when the President of the United States starts telling people not to go to Las Vegas....well, let's just say that in a city with one of the nation's highest unemployment rates, Obama won't be the grand marshall of any upcoming parades.

But surely he learned a lesson, right? When the Mayor of Las Vegas, the Senate Majority leader and the Governor of Nevada are all angry at you, you wouldn't be stupid enough to make the same mistake twice, would you?

Well, our guy would. Yesterday in New Hampshire, he decided to lecture a group of town hall meeting attendees about their personal spending habits. "When times are tough, you tighten your belts...You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college."

The quick response came from the President's own party. Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leaders from Nevada said, "The President needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn't be spending their money."

Perhaps someone should sit the President down with a map and a crayon, circle the state of Nevada and explain to him that Reid - who has spent a year as the President's personal toady on Capitol Hill - is in an uphill battle for re-election, and that Nevada is a swing state that has gone Republican in eight of the last 11 presidential elections.

Or maybe they don't need to. The voters of Nevada will probably start explaining all of this to the president in about nine months.

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Tim Droogsma is President of Twin Bluff Creative, a PR/Communications company in Red Wing, Minnesota. He has been, at various times, a sportswriter, Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Rudy Boschwitz, Press Secretary to Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson and Communications Manager for a division of General Electric.

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